What is PITO?
PITO is the Physician Information Technology Office of British Columbia. PITO was set up by the BC Medical Association (BCMA) and the BC government as part of their 2006 agreement. Under the current Physician Master Agreement PITO’s mandate now continues until March 31, 2014.
PITO’s primary responsibility is to support the implementation and optimization of electronic medical records (EMRs) in physicians’ offices across BC. PITO assists physicians during pre-implementation planning, implementation, and post-implementation, and coordinates the disbursement of IT funds to physicians as defined in the agreement.
Who is my local PITO representative?
Your main contact in your area is your PITO relationship manager. Please follow the link for a list of relationship managers and their contact details.
What is the “PITO Steering Committee”?
PITO is governed by a six-person steering committee, made up of three practising physicians appointed by the BCMA and three members appointed by the BC government. The PITO Steering Committee is responsible for PITO’s policies and annual budget, and oversees the overall delivery of the program. The committee is supported by the PITO program director who is responsible for the day-to-day delivery of the program.
What measures is PITO taking to ensure the privacy of personal information?
The privacy and security of patients’ personal information is of the utmost importance. PITO works to support and encourage the highest possible level of security.
We are working closely with physicians, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the BCMA and the Ministry of Health’s privacy office. Both the BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC provide input and oversight to ensure that sound privacy principles and practices are adopted.
Data stored for a practice in an EMR system hosted by an application service provider (ASP) is controlled by the physician, following BC privacy legislation and requirements of professional practice.
What is an ASP?
ASP stands for “application service provider”.
An ASP is a company that hosts a client’s information system on its computer servers so the client (in this case a physician) doesn’t have to manage the computer servers. This happens regularly in our everyday lives with everything from email (e.g. Gmail) to online banking records (e.g. online bill payments).
In a physician practice environment, ASP-hosted EMRs are set up in shared data centres and each practice has its own secured patient database (as required by Appendix H of the 2006 agreement). The physician accesses the EMR and patient files over the secure physician network. This model is in contrast to the locally hosted approach in which each physician maintains computer servers in his or her office to run a separate EMR system.
In an ASP model, the physician continues to look after the patient records as their custodian. The physician enters into a contract with the EMR vendor to store the records on the physician’s behalf, similar to what physicians do today with companies who maintain their old paper records offsite to save space in the office.
What are the benefits of using an ASP model?
The EMR system is hosted by a company that runs computer servers professionally.
The EMR vendor is accountable for regular data backup, regular updates to the software, rapid response to resolve problems, redundancy to avoid downtimes, etc. Physicians and staff maintaining an EMR system on a server in their office can spend a lot of time supporting the technology rather than caring for patients. Purchasing, maintaining, and regularly replacing servers for an office-based locally hosted EMR system has proven to be an expensive proposition.
The ASP model moves the computer server storing the patient records into a highly secure data centre. A server in a physicians office may be vulnerable to theft when the office is empty overnight or on holidays. The data centres have 24/7 security monitoring, including sophisticated intrusion detection and prevention. Unmonitored servers in an office are susceptible to intrusion over the Internet without immediate detection.
Many physicians need to access their EMRs when they are away from the office. Secure access to an ASP EMR system from the hospital environment and elsewhere can be achieved more reliably than an office-based locally hosted EMR system. Regardless of where physicians access their EMRs, they will retain the same look and feel that they see in their office.
Where can I find out about interoperability?
Please see Interoperability.
